UPDATE: Fisherman finds decomposed body in canal near Wellington

Palm Beach County Sheriff officials investigate the scene where human remains were found by a fisherman in a wooded area near Big Blue Trace and Southern Boulevard in Wellington on March 8, 2018. (Richard Graulich / The Palm Beach Post)

A body “in a very advanced stage of decomposition” was discovered Thursday morning along a canal at Wellington’s northern edge, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.

A person fishing in the West Palm Beach Canal noticed a bad smell in the area and found what appeared to be human bones, the sheriff’s office said. That brought detectives and a forensic anthropologist to the scene, just east of the intersection of Big Blue Trace and Southern Boulevard.

The body has not been identified. ﻿The remains will be taken to the Medical Examiner’s Office, PBSO spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.

It was not immediately known how many or which type of bones were found.

The area where the remains were found backs up to a Wellington neighborhood of large, single-family homes. Crime scene tape and PBSO vehicles could be seen through the backyards of two of those homes Thursday.